So much anger, so much hate, so much astroturf

Yesterday, Americans For Prosperity held a fake grassroots rally called “Patriots in the Park” in Belleville, Michigan near the Detroit Metro Airport. Around 400-500 tea party supporters and Sarah Palin fanatics showed up to bake in the hot sun to witness an event, dubbed “Kochstock” by LOLGOP, bought and paid for by the conservative group that bills itself as a non-political 501(c)(4) nonprofit group. This nonprofit status allows them to hide their donors and to sponsor these types of events around the country as long as they don’t support a candidate.

The result was a several-hour long anti-Obama, anti-Democrat hatefest where not a single Republican candidate got mentioned.

[Note: all photos are mine, taken with my iPhone. Do not hold my wife responsible for this (low) level of photography ; )]

LOLGOP and I went together (in disguise, of course.) Here I am, sporting my AFP t-shirt and wearing my “Don’t believe the Liberal Media” button:

We arrived around 3:30, long after the noon starting time. Thankfully, the two people I most wanted to see, Janice Daniels and Sarah Palin, hadn’t spoken yet. Here’s the scene as we arrived:

Tea Party Troy Mayor Janice Daniels began speaking nearly as soon as we got there. It was a short speech, only a few minutes, mostly whining about the recall effort against her, seeming to suggest that the expression of democracy (the recall) is somehow un-democratic. She also suggested that her son is fighting in the military to save us all from Saul Alinsky-trained radicals. Who knew?

Here she is looking at … something.

The event was emceed by the tea party whackadoo Thayrone X, an aging and boring wannabe who fancies himself a real rabble-rousing right-wing renegade. Here’s a blurb from his website:

Come on in. Your audio g-spot will now be massaged by the mink glove of soul via super fine programming 24 hours a day, 7 days a week…Once your radio is tuned into COOLARITY RADIO your antennae will go up real high and never come back down! Shivers and chills will run up your leg, the kind that Chris Matthews can only dream about…This website and all it’s content is approved by The Council To Free The Gay Feminist Bolivian Whales Defense Fund…Thayrone X, Minister of Information for The People’s Ethnic Gender Coalition of Choice and Non Choice for Diverse Rainbow Movement and Environmental Sexual Justice and Color.

Edgy. Not.

Here he is with Janice Daniels who, apparently, enjoys having her audio g-spot massaged by the mink glove of soul:

Thayrone mentioned Sarah Palin multiple times, describing her as a “stone fox” and a “hot babe”, and complaining that he was not being allowed to introduce her.

The last time I saw this guy, he was emceeing a rally for the tea party doctor Rob Steele who was, at the time, trying to unseat John Dingell. I wrote about that rally HERE. Steele was at this rally, too, as a candidate for UofM regent (where he is going to get creamed by my friend Mark Bernstein):

The guy on the left with the über-patriotic shirt is Oakland County Circuit Court Judge Michael Warren.

Out of the 400-500 people there, I saw exactly five African Americans. Three were in the vendors area, clearly part of a group.

The crowd at #Kockstock is very diverse. There's eggshell, beige and white people.

Sarah Palin adorers were everywhere. In fact, if she wasn’t the headliner, they never would have had 400 people there. It was a level of adulation and reverence that I haven’t seen since the Obama rallies of 2008.

This guy proudly posed for me:

There were speakers to promote the ballot initiative to force a 2/3 vote in our state legislature to raise taxes. There were speeches about the horrors of the new bridge to Canada. There was ranting and raving about Governor Snyder’s support of creating a state-based health insurance exchange as required by the Affordable Care Act. They actually called it “Snydercare”! Sndyer was, in fact, bashed heavily.

And then it was time for the main attraction: Sarah Palin in the flesh. She was introduced by an AFP guy whose wife spoke on stage right before him. “I’m sandwiched between my wife and Sarah Palin,” he joked. Palin came out and jumped right into her folksy, relaxed speechifying.

[Might have to have a caption contest with this photo.]

Her speech was truly just a string of the same rhetoric we’ve heard from her for the past four years. She played the “death panels” card. She played the “Hopey Changey” card. She played the “tort reform” card. She said she’s proud to “cling to my God, Guns and Constitution”. She played the “lamestream media” card. The woman who ran Alaska largely on Big Oil dividends ranted about creating a “competitive economy”. She said “Energy is our stimulus” and, in addition to playing the “Drill, baby, drill” card, tried a new one: “Mine, baby, mine.” She actually seems to believe that we can get off foreign oil with American fossil fuels.

Palin spoke for 35 minutes but, because of AFP’s precious (and I do mean precious most sincerely) nonprofit status, she never mentioned Mitt Romney’s name once. It was pretty astonishing really. She did however, hammer President Obama almost continuously the entire time. Everything from Fast and Furious to outsourcing and Obamacare.

The event was scheduled to end at 6:00 p.m. but, by 4:30, they were done. Here’s the field at 4:40:

This event had all the trappings of a true grassroots event. Except that it wasn’t. It was paid for by Americans For Prosperity. As is typical of them, they are tapping into the anti-Obama, anti-liberal, anti-Democrat fervor of the tea party and are using it to build up the hatred leading up to the election. Because they aren’t allowed to mention candidates, their rallies end up actually being MORE political because they become single-mindedly focused on maligning the Democrats and our President. (Actually, Thayrone X didn’t appear to have gotten the “don’t mention the other guys” memo. He made a statement at one point that “Everything that is wrong with our country started with the Democrats.”)

The adulation of Sarah Palin is almost unseemly. Women in the crowd were clearly in love with her but the men … well, my wife calls it “political porn”. She’s right. Between one emcee calling her a “stone fox” and a “hot babe” and another one talking about being sandwiched between her and his wife, Sarah Palin is, for her male admirers, little more than a political porn star, a sexual fantasy figure.

What this does for women in politics is horrendous. As Republicans wage their War on Women across the country, they are promoting an unhealthy and flagrantly sexualized role for their female politicians. You would never hear about a Democratic female speaker being referred to or introduced in such a fashion. The fact that Palin allows it says pretty much everything you need to know about her and about her political party.

But the bigger story here is that AFP held a political rally to gin up anti-Democrat anger and not once was their presidential candidate mentioned.

Author: EclectablogChris Savage is the owner and publisher of Eclectablog, your one-stop shop for progressive state & national political news & commentary.

Search for:

Help support nearly ad-free blogging at Eclectablog

With YOUR support, all regular contributors at Eclectablog are paid for their work. If you would like to send a check to avoid fees being taken out, send it to: Chris Savage, P.O. Box 32, Dexter, MI 48130. Otherwise, you can use this Paypal form:

Other Amount:

Want to make a recurring monthly donation? Enter the amount you want to pay each month:

Michigan Governor Rick Snyder has admitted to knowing about the poisoning of Flint's drinking water with lead. Despite this, there are STILL Flint residents who cannot drink their tap water without the use of a water filter.

LOLGOP on Twitter

Subscribe to FREE email notifications!

Subscribe to or unsubscribe from free email notifications when new posts are posted.Leave This Blank:Leave This Blank Too:Do Not Change This:

Your email:

Subscribe to a free email daily digest

If you'd like to receive one email per day with a list of all the previous day's posts, click HERE. NOTE: If you were subscribed prior to October 2016, you will need to resubscribe. This service is free.

Mitchell Robinson is associate professor and chair of music education at Michigan State University. His research is focused on music education and education policy. Follow him on Facebook HERE and Twitter at @mrobmsu. His own blog is at MitchellRobinson.net.

Susan J. Demas is a Democratic strategist, serving as vice president at Farough & Associates. She is a 17-year veteran of journalism and a syndicated political columnist for 12 years. She was most recently the editor and publisher of Inside Michigan Politics. Follow her on Twitter @sjdemas.

Tawana “Honeycomb” Petty is a mother, social justice organizer, youth advocate, poet and author. She was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan and is intricately involved in water rights, digital justice and visionary organizing work in Detroit. You can learn more about Tawana "Honeycomb" Petty by visiting honeycombthepoet.com. Follow her on Twitter at @CombsThePoet.

Ammara Ansari is a Masters in Public Policy student at University of Michigan. She is a board member of the Canton Democratic Club and Finance Director for Megan Cavanagh for Supreme Court. Find her on twitter at @AmmaraAnsari16